Relampagos, staff refute evidence
Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The lawyers and staff of Budget Undersecretary Mario Relampagos presented before the Sandiganbayan Thursday new documents tending to cast doubt on the evidence presented by state prosecutors in the pork barrel scam case.
The Ombudsman prosecutors failed to corroborate their claim that Relampagos and his staff had conspired with alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and her former employees-turned-whistleblowers to expedite the release of special allotment release orders (Saro) to the fake nongovernment organizations operated by Napoles, said the Relampagos defense team led Jan Michael Valdez.
The defense team noted that Relampagos had signed only five of the 12 Saros that were released to the implementing agencies that dealt with the Napoles NGOs as he was only pinch-hitting for the then budget secretary, Rolando Andaya Jr.
Relampago’s lawyers echoed Andaya’s line that his participation in the release of the Saros was merely ministerial, that is, as part of his duties as budget secretary.
Relampago’s lawyers also argued that the evidence the whistle-blowers gave pertained to sub-aros (sub-allotment release orders), or budget papers issued by department heads to control the release of funds to specific regional offices.
Neither Relampagos nor any other DBM official had signed the sub-aros that facilitated the release of the pork barrel funds to the Napoles NGOs, they told the Sandiganbayan First Division chaired by Associate Justice Efren de la Cruz.
They also said that DBM funds released through the Saros first went through the National Treasury and then to the implementing agency before the NGOs got the pork funds.
Relampagos, Lalaine Paule, Marilou Bare and Rosario Nunez are coaccused in the graft case against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Bong Revilla Jr. and Jinggoy Estrada.
The DBM group has filed an omnibus motion to dismiss the case against them on the ground of the prosecution’s failure to establish probable cause for graft.
The prosecution requested that they be given five days to reply to the defense presentation.
In the same hearing, the Sandiganbayan threw out the motion for bail of Ronald John Lim and Ronald de Asis, Napoles’ nephew and driver, respectively, as they remained at large. Both had been charged with plunder.
The court also issued a gag order on the legal team of Revilla led by lawyer Joel Bodegon as the magistrates had been made quite unhappy by their discussing the pork barrel scam case in media interviews.
Also at the hearing, the Sandiganbayan justices questioned the basis for the request of Dennis Cunanan, the Technology Resource Center director general on-leave, to go to Japan and the United States to attend forums sponsored by the Junior Chamber International. Cunanan was appointed secretary general of the JCI a few months ago.
Cunanan’s lawyer received an impromptu lecture from the justices who cited inconsistencies in Cunanan’s travel plea, specifically his claim that his presence was “indispensable” in the JCI forums. During the hearing, Cunanan was forced to admit that he was receiving a $5,000 monthly allowance from the JCI.
Cunanan has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of graft in the pork scam case.
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